March 25--The subscription program given by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this week at Symphony Center, preceded by a runout concert to Wheaton, was hardly calculated to shake the CSO out of the unadventurous programming rut it has gotten itself into this season, not with standard crowd-pleasers by Brahms and Rachmaninov as its sole musical fare.
No, what made the performance heard Thursday night at Symphony Center something to anticipate was the return to the downtown series of Yuri Temirkanov, one of the most important figures among senior Russian conductors, after an absence of 17 years. (Interestingly enough, in February, his great Russian compatriot, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, also reunited with the CSO after having been away for the same number of seasons.)
Although concert tours with Russia's St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, of which Temirkanov has served as artistic director and chief conductor since 1988, have brought him to Chicago in recent seasons, his previous successes with the CSO at Ravinia and Orchestra Hall clearly warranted a return invitation.
Too bad the program really didn't tell us anything about the eminent 77-year-old conductor's musical skills and affinities we didn't know before. His authority in his native repertory has long since been established, and he ceded the spotlight in Rachmaninov's colossal Third Piano Concerto to his younger Russian colleague, the powerhouse pianist Denis Matsuev. That left Brahms' Symphony No. 2 to demonstrate what he could do in the canonic German repertory.
Temirkanov remains an immensely dignified presence on the podium, a conductor who gets his ideas across to musicians with hardly any body language and no superfluous gestures whatsoever. He doesn't use a baton: Musical communication and control are achieved strictly through the hands, eyes and arms. Fledgling conductors could learn a thing or two by observing the calm mastery with which his right arm connects phrases in a seamless legato line, the way he points out fine details to players with a flutter of his fingers.
Such close attention to instrumental nuance in Rachmaninov's lush orchestration -- hushed violas and horn in the opening movement, waltzing clarinet and bassoon in the central Intermezzo -- distinguished the CSO's accompaniment, subservient as it was to the soloist's barnstorming, even if the horns were not having one of their better nights.
Matsuev's approach to the Rachmaninov blockbuster has not changed appreciably since his 2010 performance here with the Mariinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg or his Ravinia/CSO debut with the "Rach Three" two years earlier. This was more an athletic achievement than a musical one: The pianist's astonishing power, muscularity and stamina drove the reading across the finish line as if he were out to set a new land speed record. His playing sent waves of excitement coursing through the audience but left questions about the soloist's musical scope unanswered.
No one denies that Matsuev commands as huge a technical arsenal as any pianist on the planet, or that he can vanquish Rachmaninov's most daunting keyboard writing with a nonchalant shrug. The crowd adored his virtuoso prowess but I found much of his playing brusque, glib and even, at times, crude, his sound dry and clattery. When lyrical counterbalance was in order, the result felt surprisingly prosaic. No surprise that the pianist opted for the more extrovert chordal alternative of the two cadenzas Rachmaninov wrote for the first movement. But by the time the smoke had cleared, one had to wonder: Where was the heart amid the glitter?
Matsuev granted the clamorous crowd a single encore, Liadov's delicate "Musical Snuffbox." He played it very nicely indeed. Otherwise, this pianist remains a puzzlement.
An unexceptional Brahms Second followed after intermission. One was reminded that Riccardo Muti led the same symphony here nearly three years ago and will repeat it as part of his Brahms symphony cycle next season. I love the Symphony No. 2 as much as anyone, but why can't there be closer coordination in programming between the music director and guest conductors?
Temirkanov's interpretation was perfectly sane, sensible and solidly idiomatic, as far as it went, and the orchestra gave him a very decent performance, even if several rough attacks were evident. But this relatively faceless view added little to the CSO's distinguished Brahms performance tradition. I'll be waiting for Muti's take on the work.
John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.
jvonrhein@tribpub.com
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.
Tickets: $36-$260; 312-294-3000, www.cso.org
